Canadian Women's Religious Volunteerism

The explosion of interest in the concept of social capital has refocused attention within the political behavior field of political science on the importance of the private aspects of life, an emphasis long ago adopted and encouraged by feminist researchers in the area. ¹ One result of this expanded focus is increased interest in religious beliefs and activity and their relevance for political behavior. As such, this paper examines the religious volunteering of women as an element of social capital and its relevance for women's political engagement. The importance of religious beliefs and activity in women's lives has been well documented. Women are more likely to report regular religious attendance than men. Sidney Verba et al., for example, found that 55 percent of American women in the Citizen Participation Study (1990) reported that they attended church services regularly compared to 43 percent of men. ² While only 20 percent of all Canadians aged fifteen and over in 1999 reported “some kind of religious activity on a weekly basis,” 23 percent of women compared with 17 percent of men did the same. ³ Elsewhere I report on the greater relevance of religious values in shaping Canadian women's political opinions. ⁴ Thus, religious beliefs play a particularly important role in shaping women's political opinions and behavior, especially when compared to men, and are deserving of attention. Yet, as noted by Verba et al., “What is striking… is that arena in which women are clearly more active than men is one that is rarely mentioned in discussions of gender differences in participation: religious institutions.” ⁵